PEDRO’S ANALYSIS TOOL

A busy proxy server is something that no self-respecting admin should leave to its own devices. The Squid logfile analyzer, dubbed Sarg by its author, helps you keep your Squid servers on track.

I really enjoy browsing sites such as Sourceforge or Freshmeat for interesting software packages. Of course, packages with interesting sounding names are more likely to catch my eye. I couldn’t help noticing a tool by the Brazilian software developer, Pedro Orso. I’m sure Pedro wasn’t aware of the slightly morbid connotations of his Squid Analysis Report Generator (Sarg) for German Linux users. (Sarg is the German word for coffin.) But this didn’t put me off in the least, and it’s just as well it didn’t, because Sarg is exactly the kind of tool that I like: lean and quick. And it gets on very efficiently with the task for which it was intended: creating reports based on Squid logs.

You might want to reap the benefits of active directory’s single sign-on for your virus scanning and content filtering. If you also use Squid to handle user access to the internet, you have a front-row seat for “when worlds collide.”